Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out for a 3/4 day with John, Michelle, and Phil today.  We departed around 6:45 and headed to the spanish mackerel grounds.  Fishing was pretty good we caught about 2 dozen in just an hour or so.  It was action almost every cast!  Good to see them still around thick as they are sort of our bread and butter this time of year.  After that we ran to find some tarpon.  We tried the channels where they were milling around yesterday and they were there today again too.  The winds were nice and calm and we had the last trickle of falling tide, but the tide quit out on us early.  We managed to hook a shark that cut us off, and then on the change of the tide Phil hooked a nice 85 lb tarpon!  He to under and around the trolling motor, all the places you dont want them to go, which often happens when they bite on a tide change as the line and stuff is wanting to drift under the boat.  Anyways we avoided cutting him off and Phil landed him nicely.  Later on we caught a big lemon shark when the tide changed and started coming in, and while fighting him, Michelle hooked a nice 45 lb tarpon.  She got the wind on leader on him but unfortunately it was a quick release as he spit the hook on a jump but we had the leader for a technical catch.  It was time to head home after that but a great day on the water for these 3!  Back at it tomorrow.  We seem to be in full tarpon season swing right now with no cold fronts in site.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out for a full day with Howard and Mike, two return customers who fished with me last year.  We mixed it up a bit and tried a few different things, having some success with each.  We caught some pilchards to start our day and I had hoped we’d get in on some juvenile tarpon action that was good a few days ago.  We found the little tarpon, but they weren’t as active as I would’ve liked.  We couldn’t get them to respond but we did catch a couple nice mangrove snappers and a small barracuda.  After that we hit the gulf to try for some mackerel and other species.  We found a few mackerel and a bunch of big ladyfish and blue runners.  We moved out a bit further and got on a little bit better mackerel bite.  We saved much of this for bait for larger stuff later on.  We found some larger tarpon in the next stop and put out some bait for them.  Howard caught a nice cobia which was a surprise!  About a 30 lber, lots of fun and a first for him.  We saw a few tarpon showing a little ways away and moved into that area.  Mike had a tarpon bite soon after but he didn’t stay on the hook.  We had one other one that I beleive was a tarpon give us a quick zing on the rod but never got the hook in him either.  We did catch a few blacktip sharks, and Howard hooked what I think was a big sawfish (those are usually pretty easy to guess what they are).  He cut us off though but may of been for the better as it seemed like a big one that wasn’t stopping anytime soon.  Anyways that was about it for us for the day.  I’ll be back at it tomorrow not sure what we are doing and it’s a shorter 3/4 day, but tarpon may be on the menu.  Since it is so warm tarpon fishing will likely be a regular thing from here on out, barring any crazy cold fronts.  Be sure to check out my other website for the daily updated tarpon reports, as once that starts going I usually don’t update this site as much.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out for a full day today with long time customers Bill and Elaine.  We decided to mix it up and keep things simple as I told them the last couple days had been a little slow.  We caught some pilchards early on and had some live shrimp and headed out.  We found a few local islamorada snook first thing and Elaine caught a nice 8 lber on her own cast!  Great start to the day.  We were going to hit the bayside for some mackerel but had a report that it was slow there, so we ventured around some local islands for mangrove snapper.  We found some big snappers which was great but were also rewarded with more.  We found a good school of little tarpon and managed to catch a couple and miss a couple more.  We also got another snook and a redfish.  A welcome surprise we normally don’t see those fish in these areas, but since IRMA weird things like that have happened.  After that we headed into the gulf to mackerel fish and that was good action.  Not a ton of mackerel but we probably caught 8 or so, but plenty of blue runners and some big snappers out there too.  We tried some spots in the backcountry for snook and redfish but no luck back there, it was still a little muddy looking I thought.  We tried for big tarpon back their briefly and again locally near home but no luck.  I did not see the big school of tarpon like we saw yesterday near home, but I’m sure there are some around with as warm as it is.  Off tomorrow for boat service, then available Wednesday if anyone wants to go.  I’ll be fishing Thursday for sure hopefully the bite stays like it was today, the winds will be swinging more easterly as opposed to southeasterly which can make a big difference.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Jack and Sandy today for a full day of backcountry fishing.  It was super windy again but the wind swung around a little more south.  One of my least favorite wind directions!  Jack wanted to try and catch snook, and I said if we got the right bait (pilchards) we’d give it a good try.  Bait wasn’t easy it was super muddy with the wind, but we were able to get lucky and blind throw and caught probably 150 baits.  We made our way towards the cape and it didn’t look very nice over there… mud everywhere, typical with that wind direction.  We tried to find some areas tucked away inside.  We had one little tarpon suck a pilchard off in one area that was it.  No bites in the next couple stops.  We ran further back to try the shorelines on the western side of the mainland, in the lee of the wind.  Had one snook bite there but unfortunately it was while we had the rod in the holder and missed him.  We ran even further back to fish some other creeks, found a buddy of mine in one but he said fishing wasn’t great they had caught some trout while the tide was moving, but it was in the slow process of changing now.  We gave it 40 minutes or so and caught a couple trout and then bailed.  We ran all the way towards home, tried around an island for some snook but no bites there.  We then tried to catch the mackerels in the bay near home where they were biting good a couple days before.  But we never had a sniff there…  We tried a couple more spots locally in Islamorada for snook, and did manage to finally catch one and then had one other bite we missed.  Anyways very tough day, haven’t had one in a while but I guess I was due.  Tomorrow my anglers want tarpon so I’ll be sticking to that gameplan.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out today with Cary and Colin.  The winds were cranking hard east at 25 mph, blustery!  We caught some mullet in the morning and then headed to the tarpon grounds.  Fishing wasn’t easy there we had a weak incoming tide straight into the wind.  Found a few tarpon in a couple spots, the first stop they didn’t bite but the second stop Colin hooked and landed a nice 80 lb fish!  We also got a small shark and a big bluefish.  Mission accomplished!  We tried a couple spots nearby for some snook, but the water was too low to get to two of them even though it was high tide.  We are just on a low water tide cycle right now I suppose.  But we did find a spot that we were able to get to and had a couple big snook grab our pinfish we put out.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to land either one, the first got into some tree structure and broke us off.  The second just went through the leader… must’ve swallowed the hook.  Anyways at least we had a couple bites and they were both exciting!  After that we had to take our time getting into the gulf for the mackerels with the swells.  But we made it out there to the mackerel grounds.  We chummed and didn’t have much action aside from catfish for the first 30 or 40 minutes.  But I saw a few mackerel darting around so we tried switching up our tactics and got them to bite a little bit.  By the end they were biting OK and I think we landed 16 mackerels or so… not a bad way to end the day at all!  We headed on home after that.  Not a bad day all things considered.  Back at it tomorrow.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing